WTF is wrong with dealerships!?!?!?

C

chucknorris

New member
So, a bit of background, I bought a toyota certified 05 SE w/ 60k miles 3 months ago. Everything was good. I had her on a lift the other day and was pokin around since I havent had access to a lift since purchase.

Turns out XREAS is leaking on both front and rear passenger side shocks. I bring her in today to have it warrantied out. Without even looking at the vehcile, the service writer says XREAS isnt covered....the f!*$ it is isnt.... I telll him its a toyota certified vehicle with 1yr comprehensive warranty, basically a bumper to bumper warranty. he didnt even know I bought the vehicle from his dealership.

SO, im sitting and waiting for his call back to tell me what I already know......

Any suggestions/ammo from the good folk here that can help me to make these morons just get it fixed is appreciated.

My plan right now is to escalate to the service manager if this guy denies me.

Am I in the wrong here?
 
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This is nothing new....I've seen dealers pulling this sh*t for over 30 years.

Do you have any paperwork on the warranty??? If so review it carefully.


Good Luck
 
Its always nice to have the warranty paper out that shows suspension coverage rather than arguing with the SA's. However, suspension or brake component(except calipers) are usually not cover under extended warranty although it is bumper to bumper. Due to that these are wear and tear items. But if the fine print on your warranty states suspension then your good to go.
 
So I got the call back and after talking with the warranty group at toyota, the XREAS is covered, either that or they didnt want to mess with chuck norris ;-) Remove/replace in progress. My baby will be done by end of day.

thanks for info and confirming guys!
 
MikeInNH said:
This is nothing new....I've seen dealers pulling this sh*t for over 30 years.

Do you have any paperwork on the warranty??? If so review it carefully.


Good Luck
Click to expand...

This is unfortunetly so true... many times service advisors and technicans will find what ever way they can to ignore the warranty because of how little it pays the dealership. For example, water pump on a 4.7L V8 warranty time is a little over 2hrs. Including removal, installation, coolant fill and bleed...

The system is so screwed up and it really bends and breaks morality in a dealership down to petty greed and penny pinching, even more so if the dealership is owned by a large corporation rather than an individual owner..

V8PoWer said:
Its always nice to have the warranty paper out that shows suspension coverage rather than arguing with the SA's. However, suspension or brake component(except calipers) are usually not cover under extended warranty although it is bumper to bumper. Due to that these are wear and tear items. But if the fine print on your warranty states suspension then your good to go.
Click to expand...

Eastcoastrunner said:
i wouldn't wanna tell chuck norris the repair cost of the Xreas either!:mad:
Click to expand...

Normally brakes and struts/shocks are wear and tear items, but I believe since the XREAS is a proprietary system that's mostly considered "life long" they don't count it. That warranty contract is your best weapon to keep the service advisor and dealer straight.

Glad to hear it all worked out.
 
Again, thanks to everyone here!

So, I got the truck back, checked the components, and everything is new, some existing lines looked like they were re-used, but the majority of the parts are brand new. I had my doubts, but the dealer did make good on the warranty.

However, it was my understanding that generally, when new suspension is installed, an alignment should be done automatically. The work order states the issue (XREAS fail) and parts replaced(all four shocks+resovoirs). But,there is no "alignment performed" noted. I dont know where to look to see if an alignment was done(suggestions welcomed).

Any thoughts? Or is alignment not neccesary?
 
chucknorris said:
Again, thanks to everyone here!

So, I got the truck back, checked the components, and everything is new, some existing lines looked like they were re-used, but the majority of the parts are brand new. I had my doubts, but the dealer did make good on the warranty.

However, it was my understanding that generally, when new suspension is installed, an alignment should be done automatically. The work order states the issue (XREAS fail) and parts replaced(all four shocks+resovoirs). But,there is no "alignment performed" noted. I dont know where to look to see if an alignment was done(suggestions welcomed).

Any thoughts? Or is alignment not neccesary?
Click to expand...

I would just go ahead and call them up and ask if it was done, chances are they will say no and will try and make you pay for it. But you're right if the suspension has been replaced or adjusted in any way, it should be re-aligned as a precaution.

Best case scenario they did it automatically and never recorded it, worst case you'll have to beat them with the book a bit and have them re-align it for you.
 
The warranty is the final word - read it and see which of the 160 checkpoints are covered. If it's not in the warranty ready yourself for a fight.
 
It is a numbers game. Insurance only works if it has what you can call the healthy "pyramid" factor. It is all about a sufficiently large risk pool. If you have too many claims, your ratio between risk/non-risk members will fall too low and will collapse insurance.

As long as we live in a system run by money and operated around "scarcity" of resource, you cannot allow everyone with insurance to cash in. Doesn't work. Our health care system is struggling because as American's age/live longer with chronic diseases, and as we get fatter, our healthy to sick ratio is falling.


So. My point? You attempt to control the risk pool through a variety of ways. One of the top is the claims process. Too liberal a policy and the system collapses, to harsh, no one trusts it and they don't buy it. It is a fine line, a balance that must be maintained. Market forces do pretty well with this.


Anyway. I hope they fix it, and sorry to hear it, but they do what they do to maximize their benefit to cost ratio in the warranty system.



On a totally unrelated note: I got to Tour the new VW plant in TN. I am from Chattanooga and am lucky to work for someone that warrants getting a VIP tour.

IT IS amazing. I am sure toyota is similar, but I saw real quick. It is ALL robots!
 
once they figure out that its covered, and plan on fixing it, take it to another dealer and let them make the $$. they are idiots. I sold parts for along time, warenty work is gravy, their service rider would have jumped all over that if he had a clue at what he does for a living. my .02
 
Well sometimes we can not really take out this kind of dealers,But most important be sure and make first an observation before going into it.
 
UPDATE:

I just got off the phone with the dealer about the alignment not being listed on the work order.

Service advisor stated he was told warranty group and tech said no alignment was required for XREAS.

I smell doo-doo....I have never heard that an alignment was unneccesary when suspension work has been done.

However, truck does track straight at low and high speed. I plan on giving the suspension a few days to settle and see what happens. I just need to give reasons that point to an alignment problem.

The only symptom I can think of is vehicle tracking at high and low speed (which it does fine right now).

Anyone have other symptoms that would require an alignment?
 
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I know that a lot of places offer free alignment checks. They basically toss your 4runner on the machine and tell you if its in spec or not in hopes that if its not you will have them align it. I would just take it there and see if its in or out.
 
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